The case for being weird and remarkable

Since the late ‘80s when I started working in consumer electronics, which was the kick-start of the technology revolution, nothing has changed my life and how I live my life as much as the radical impact of our fully digital world.

I have seen new technology taken up at the speed of light, from the first camcorders to now wearable devices. The sheer enjoyment and satisfaction it has brought me to be part of this amazing social re-engineering of our society has only just hit me.

We are all part of the biggest social experiment since at least the Victorian Age, and it’s actually very exciting.

I have seen pain, and still do in boardrooms, as industries have been turned upside down, disrupted by innovators they didn’t see coming.

Speaking in Sydney last week, Seth Godin talked of the need for all of us to be weird and remarkable, as every new successful company that has emerged in the past few years would previously be considered weird and is remarkable. From Airbnb to Airtasker to Uber to LittleMissMatch, a USA business that sells mismatched socks and gloves! It is a big shift for most established organisations to think in a weirder and more remarkable way.

With 3 billion people online anyone can find you, said Godin. For example, you didn’t find out about Twitter because they sponsored the World Cup, you found out about Twitter because someone told you. Let’s face it; Twitter is definitely weird and remarkable.

The realisation that everyone has the chance to stand out and to be found without a marketing budget, but by being remarkable and a little weird is another insight that makes my own journey a little more satisfying and enjoyable. It enables us to think better, to live a more intentioned life and develop an eye for the alternate path. We can meet new people and inspire each other.

This sheer enjoyment of allowing myself to be weird and remarkable with confidence is taking me into new start-ups, into investing in social impact projects and finding other weird and remarkable people. I definitely recommend it; do something weird and remarkable today.

Fi Bendall is the managing director of Bendalls Group, a team of highly trained digital specialists, i-media subject matter experts and developers.